Tesla CEO Elon Musk finished spelling out an all-electric acronym by lifting the veil on the Model Y, a crossover SUV that’s due to hit the market in the fall of 2020.

“We are bringing ‘sexy’ back, quite literally,” he told hundreds of Tesla fans who gathered for the Hollywood-style unveiling at Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, Calif.

Musk didn’t quite literally lift a veil to reveal the new model. Instead, he built up the suspense by giving an “extended history lesson” about Tesla’s decade-long history of vehicle production, starting with the Tesla Roadster and moving on to the Model S, Model X, Model 3, the Semi truck and the remade Roadster.

Along the way, Musk explained the ins and outs of his naming convention, including the fact that he couldn’t use the name “Model E” because Ford had it trademarked.

“Ford killed SEX,” Musk joked.

As he described the vehicles, each model was driven into the spotlight. Finally it was the Model Y’s turn. Cheers and whoops went up from the crowd as a shiny blue car pulled into its place alongside the Model S, 3, X. Y completed the acronym.

The car looks as much like the Model 3 as Tesla’s Model X SUV looks like the Model S sedan. The similarities between the designs are intentional, because that commonality is expected to speed development — thus avoiding the “production hell” that marked the Model 3’s birth.

A chart projected on the screen with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an inset image shows the basic statistics for different versions of the Model Y. Click on the image for a larger version. (Tesla via YouTube)

Musk laid out the basic statistics for four variants of the Model Y: The Standard Range model will be the cheapest, carrying a price tag of $39,000 and offering a maximum range of 230 miles and top speed of 120 mph. The $60,000 Performance model will be the most expensive variant, with a 280-mile range and a 150 mph top speed. The $47,000 Long Range model is projected to go 300 miles on a charge, while the Dual Motor AWD version prices out at $51,000.

Tesla says the three more expensive versions will be ready for delivery in the fall of 2020, while the Standard Range model will go on the market in the spring of 2021. Orders are already being taken online.

All four variants will have a panoramic glass roof, 66 cubic feet of interior space and can seat up to seven, Musk said.

“It has the functionality of an SUV but it will ride like a sports car,” he said.

Some analysts wonder whether the promise of the Model Y will hurt sales of the Model 3, as buyers decide to wait for the newer model. Musk insisted that Model 3 sales would rise dramatically over the next year, making the sorts of optimistic projections that got him in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission when he put them in a tweet.

“We’ve made 550,000 vehicles, something like that,” he said. “Twelve months from now, we will have made about a million vehicles.”

Musk was even more optimistic about Model Y sales.

“I’m confident that of any midsize SUV, it’ll be the one you want,” he said. “I think it’ll probably sell … I think we’ll probably do more Model Y’s than S, X and 3 combined, most likely. So there you have the S3XY presentation.”

On other topics:

Musk said ramping up production of the Model 3 and dealing with controversies ranging from a securities fraud case to a marijuana brouhaha made for a rough year. “2018 felt like aging five years in one,” he said.

He indicated that battery production for the Model 3 has stabilized to the point that Tesla can start ramping up production of electricity-generating solar roof tiles and Powerwall home-battery installations. “This is definitely going to be the year of the solar roof and the Powerwall,” Musk said.

Referring to one of his other day jobs as CEO at SpaceX, Musk half-jokingly said “we will be driving a Tesla on Mars” in 10 years. “I think we actually could.”

SAN FRANCISCO: Tesla Inc unveiled its Model Y electric sports utility vehicle on Thursday evening in California, promising a much-awaited crossover that will face competition from European car makers rolling out their own electric rivals.

Chief Executive Elon Musk said the compact SUV, built on the same platform as the Model 3, would first debut in a long-range version with a range of 300 miles priced at about $47,000.

A standard version, to be available sometime in 2021, would cost about $39,000, he said.

Musk unveiled the car at a small event at Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, outside Los Angeles, that was streamed online. (https://www.tesla.com/modely)

Small SUVs are the fastest-growing segment in both the United States and China, the world’s largest auto market, where Tesla is building a factory, making the Model Y well positioned to tap demand.

Tesla has enjoyed little competition thus far for its sedans, but competition for electric SUVs is heating up as Tesla tries to master a new set of economics from the luxury line that made its reputation.

On Thursday, ratings company Fitch warned that, despite Tesla’s early lead, “incumbent carmakers have the ability to catch up … thanks to their capacity to invest and their robust record in product management.”

Shares of Tesla are down 24 percent from an August high of $379.57, when Musk tweeted that he was taking Tesla private.

That plan – later scrapped – ushered in a period of turmoil at the company, from Musk’s public battles with regulators, a flurry of securities lawsuits, cost cutting and layoffs.

Tesla, two weeks ago, said it would close most stores and use savings to cut the price of most cars by 6 percent. But last week, Tesla reversed course and said it would leave many stores open and raised prices back by about 3 percent.

Musk has promised an easier production ramp of the Model Y, since it shares about three-quarters of its parts with the Model 3 and would need only half the capital expenditures of the sedan.

The risk is “quite low” Musk told analysts in January. Tesla would “most likely” build the Model Y at Tesla’s battery factory in Nevada, he said.

Still, the Model Y, like all Tesla’s models, has already seen pre-production delays. Suppliers were originally told that production would start in November 2019, sources told Reuters last year.

In October, Musk said “significant progress” had been made on the Model Y and that he had approved the prototype for production in 2020. In January, he said Tesla had ordered the tooling needed to build the car.

Tesla Roadster or CityAirbus: What Will You Ride To Work?

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Future Of Personal Transport

21 Nov, 2018

Your ride to the office or even a pleasure trip will be faster, higher and more energy efficient.

CityAirbus

21 Nov, 2018

It is a multi-passenger, autonomously piloted electric flying car concept that can takeoff and land vertically (VTOL). CityAirbus is designed to carry up to four passengers over congested megacities to places like airports or train stations in a fast and environment-friendly way. Its integrated drive train includes eight propellers that deliver exceptional torque-to-weight ratio. Its first flight is scheduled for the end of the year.

​Malloy Hoverbike Helicopter

21 Nov, 2018

Hoverbikes are coming to take motorbikes off the roads. You can ride the Malloy Hoverbike or make it fly autonomously, deliver aid, transport people and equipment over buildings, rivers and mountains. It has a payload capacity of 130 kg, can reach an altitude of 9,000 feet and can fly at a speed of more than 100 knots, or about 185 kmph.

Jetman Wing

21 Nov, 2018

Get ready to fly off like a superhero in a new breed of solo flying machines. If the jet-powered carbon fibre wings invented by Swiss aviator Yves Rossy go commercial, you will soon be able to fly through the skies. Powered by four miniature jet engines, this wing unit can hit speeds of up to 300 kmph.

Plimp Airship

21 Nov, 2018

The passenger version of Egan Airships’s Plimp (Model J) can carry up to eight passengers and cruise at a speed of 100 kmph. The unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can manoeuvre and move quickly like fixed-wing aircraft, hover and vertically take off and land like a helicopter. It uses partial lift by helium, which is not flammable, and partial lift by its rotational wings. Turn the engines off and the Plimp gently floats back to the ground.

At first, the CEO said that these thrusters, which basically amount to small rocket engines, will “dramatically improve acceleration, top speed, braking and cornering”, but he also said that it would “maybe even allow a Tesla to fly.”

It’s not all good news. Just days after announcing plans to close almost all of its stores, Tesla reversed course and decided to only close half as many. The change means that instead of offering a six percent price cut across the board, the company will offer a three percent cut. The $35,000 Model 3, which launched at the start of the month, is not affected by the changes. Read more.

What’s next for Tesla: Tesla is set to launch the Model Y at an event on March 14 at 8 p.m. Pacific time.

The Boring Company

The Boring Company plans to come to Las Vegas by the end of the year, Musk announced on Wednesday. The city’s convention center, home to the CES annual tech show, wants to build a “loop” to help attendees avoid the two miles of walking from one side to the other. It could be a major win for the firm, which has yet to start construction of its first project beyond the Hawthorne, California, test tunnel. Read more.

For EXMO Exchange users, the platform has allocated a separate direction of EXMO codes with the top list of cryptocurrencies. Users do not need to …

Genius, billionaire, philanthropist, engineer, inventor and investor, a man whose name has been very popular in recent years. The man drove by a dream, a dreamer who wants to conquer the space and bring technology to an absolutely new unprecedented level. As you may have guessed, this is Elon Reeve Musk.In this article, we will talk about how the man who was born in the poor city of Pretoria which is in the Republic of South Africa, has risen on the top of technological progress.

1. Early years

As we said above, everything began in South Africa, in the city of Pretoria. The father of the future genius was a successful businessman and was able to give his 10-year-old son a computer Commodore VIC-20, on which little Elon learned to program. The first deal in Musk`s life happened when he was 12 years old: he sold his first video game “Blast star” for 500 dollars. This game was a rethinking of the well-known game “Space in Waders”. The teenager invested the raised money in shares of a pharmaceutical company, the development of which was closely followed by his father. When he was 17 years old, Musk sold these shares to leave his hometown for studying in Canada. It should be noted that Elon’s parents were against such a decision, but the young Musk insisted on his own and left his homeland and flew to North America.

2. The first companies and PayPal

In Canada, Musk settled at relatives, soon he applied to Stanford, but never finished it. In 1996, Elon together with his brother created his own company Zip2, which developed software for news companies. After just three years, in 1999, Compaq bought Zip2 for $308 million. Musk’s share of this deal was $22 million. A few months later, Elon became one of the founders of the company X.com, which after the merger with the company Confinity became the world-famous payment system PayPal. It should be noted that Elon himself was against the name of PayPal. This service began to actively develop, mainly it was used to buy various goods at auctions, including the most famous Ebay.com. In October 2002, the company PayPal was bought by eBay, the amount of the deal amounted to $1.5 billion, a record for those times. At the time of the sale, Elon Musk owned 11.7% of the company’s shares, which allowed him to receive $165 million.

3. Road to the stars “SpaceX”

In 2002, Musk founded the company SpaceX, which is a private developer of a series of launch vehicles and a commercial operator of space systems. It should be noted that Musk personally invested in SpaceX $100 million, which he had earned from the sale of his previous companies. Elon Musk set the goal: “to reduce the cost of space flight by 10 times.” It seemed unreal, but it took 6 years for Musk and his engineering team to realize it. In 2008, Nasa signed a contract with SpaceX for $1.6 billion. It is very important to note that Elon Musk not only managed this company, he also dealt with engineering and visual activities. As his partners say, Musk independently studied rocket science and continues his own self-study to this day. Almost all the brilliant ideas implemented in SpaceX came to Elona Musk’s mind.

SpaceX is the only company in the world that uses the first stages of launch vehicles on a reusable basis. The ultimate Musk`s goal is the conquest of the space: a colony on Mars and other space bodies of the Solar System. The first flight to the Red Planet is scheduled for 2024. A huge BFR (big falcon rocket) spacecraft is currently in a process of development.

4. Electrification of the automotive industry “Tesla”

At the same time that SpaceX was developing, Musk started the not less ambitious project – in 2003 Musk founded Tesla Motors, the company that specializes in the production of electric cars. This was a very difficult project since Musk and his team were pioneers in this market. In 2006, the brainchild of Elon launched his first car Tesla Roadster, which is a two-seater supercar. The production of this model was very limited since all the cars were assembled by hand.

Now Tesla company is one of the largest car manufacturers in the United States. The company’s lineup now includes Model S (business class sedan), Model X (roomy crossover), Model 3 (budget sedan), Tesla Semi (truck, mass production will begin at the end of 2019), Tesla Roadster 2 (supercar, mass production will begin in 2020). Also in the project are the Model Y (budget crossover) and Tesla pickup.

Source: https://www.wikipedia.org/

In 2018, the company had problems that were related to the scaling of production capacity of Model 3, but 3 and 4 quarters of 2018 were profitable for the company and Musk promised investors that the worst was over and that in the future the company would only expect growth and prosperity.

5. Transition to the energy of the sun “Solar City”

In July 2006, Elon Musk`s cousins (with his participation) founded the company Solar City, which specializes in installing solar panels on the roofs of both private houses and public premises. Just a year after the founding of this company, it became the leader in its field of activity in California. Subsequently, Solar City was acquired by Tesla.

6. Underground tunnels “Boring company”

Another problem that Elon Musk decided to fight with was traffic jams. To solve this problem, Elon proposed to build a network of underground tunnels in which cars would move on special platforms, at a speed of 200 km/h. Musk with the company’s engineers are working to improve the drilling rigs in order to cut down the cost of building tunnels by ten times. The most advanced modern boring machines move with a speed that is 7 times less than the speed of movement of an ordinary snail. As Musk joked, the main goal of the company is to outrun the snail. In December 2018, the Boring Company held a presentation of its first test tunnel, which cost the company $10 million, which is several times less than the average market price for a contractor.

7. Conclusion

Elon Musk is very versatile, he has a number of innovative, but less well-known projects:

StarLink is a satellite Internet project with coverage of 100% of the globe. The idea is to launch about 12,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit, which will have to give the Internet anywhere in the world. This is a project of SpaceX, which is now actively preparing for its implementation.

Hyperloop – a project of a supersonic train. For the first time, this idea was voiced by Elon Musk in 2012, but he said that he would not personally deal with its implementation. Already after a short period of time, there were created two companies which actively began to implement the project.

Neuralink is a neurocomputer interface project. To fully describe this idea of Elon Musk, it is needed to write a separate rather long article. But in short words, Neuralink will help connect the human brain directly to the Internet and to the gadgets that surround us. Today it sounds like a fantastic movie script, but some 10 years ago, self-driving electric cars or manned first stages of launch vehicles that land and can fly again, were also unreal. But as we see, all the goals that Elon Musk sets for himself, sooner or later become a reality.

So we can only wish him good luck and watch him changing our world beyond recognition.